Too darn hot - and health update

Update:  GP just phoned to say my bloods were back and I have a sky high marker (should be 5 or under and it's 84!) showing an infection.  That's why I was a bit shivery a couple of nights, and had drenching sweats and no appetite.  She's getting a script for A/B's sent down to the pharmacy for me so I'll get that this afternoon.

I'm inside, in the kitchen.  24 deg and too darn hot out there for me.  I got all the outside jobs done earlier and have a couple of clothes horses full of washing probably completely dry by now.  I've done the cat litter, and finally emptied all the half empty jars of this and that which Tam asked if I could dispose of for her.  The glass jars are soaking, lids binned, and compost caddy emptied and washed.

I sat down and researched the things I came home with yesterday.  My "having a feeling" (Keith at my elbow I reckon!!) that I should go straight to the far side of the stalls paid off.  I bought a really fabulous French piece but that is put away for the moment.  I also found this:

A nice studio pot by Iona Pottery.

And this:

It goes up the other way actually but it is French and so pretty.  Just need to do a tiny paint-in on a scrape on the left hand drawer.  Went upstairs searching for my old ice cream container of Acrylics and couldn't find it - then glanced left whilst at the computer, and there it was. 

The Reckitt's Blue advertising card reminded me of when I used to wash little grey ponies' tails in it before they went off to Pony Club, when I worked with horses and had two grubby little tinkers to scrub up, especially after they had been down to granny and grandads' in the Quantocks, where the soil is red and Pink Ponies returned just before Pony Club Camp.  Then this, which is currently on the fireplace mantleshelf.

Oh, and nearly forgot:

These little oil paintings make good backdrops on the dressers.

Some vintage kitchenalia.  1920s but still perfect working order - it is a sifter too.

I couldn't resist these three off the same stall!  And yes, looking at the backdrop to these, I WILL do some tidying up this morning :)  

Staying on the subject of cats, Lulu, reduced to popping bubblewrap to stave off the pangs of hunger!!

I need to go round with a vacuum shortly as there are no end of daddy long leg spiders and babies around the cornices and they need moving on . . .

I have shut the front door - well, the only door really, as it leads outside from the hall and the old Georgian door at the side of the kitchen is fixed not to open - as it was letting too much hot air and too many flies in.  A shame as I loved listening to the Swifts screaming overhead  - though most of them are hawking for insects above Pam's, and she's delighted about that.  It also shuts out the sound of my farming neighbours tractors as they are haymaking in nearby fields.  Perfect weather for it.

Another load of washing on (my duvet cover as it's too hot for the duvet) so that will be washed and dried today.  I will find some hand-sewing to settle down with this afternoon.

I survived!

 

I am glad to say that I am still here to tell the tale and I had a  really lovely day out.   I nearly had to cry off this morning because I woke up feeling sick, but Pam arrived and I thought to hell with it.  We have had a super time, both finding things which interested us.  Pam was laughing as the Universe had sent her cockerels!  She wanted a decorative cockerel to go in her kitchen as she bought a cockerel tray there last time.  My goodness, they were EVERYWHERE!  From nice ceramic cockerel teapots to enormous paper mache ones.  She got a painted wooden one she liked, slim enough to go on her windowsill and a pair of little pottery salt and pepper pots with tiny cockerels on them.  A few useful other bits for her kitchen revamp too.

Fortunately it wasn't too hot - not as hot as they said it would be anyway - and it was a bit cloudy, and a breeze blowing.  Phew!  I was worried about struggling in the extreme heat forecast (29 deg).  It was very muggy though and stuffy inside the sheds.  

We met some lovely sellers and at several stalls stopped and chatted for a while.  Just doing that is lovely.  I would have loved to have bought this sampler, but it was £150 (and worth it) and I couldn't justify it.  There quite a few samplers on offer today, but I just took pictures.

A nice hand-sewn wholecloth quilt but my budget doesn't run to three figures on one item.

A cathedral window patchwork hanging.

A lovely bodge-it rustic stool - the legs just tree branches with the bark left on, and a lovely rustic chair behind which I wasn't entirely convinced was "right".  Just a feeling.  Perhaps I was wrong, but unless you have a proper look you don't know for sure and I didn't want to waste the seller's time.  There's no come-back at Fairs like this - you makes your choice and you pays the money and Caveat emptor at the end of the day . . . P.S.  It would have been 4 figures, so way out of my remit anyway.

A reasonably modern (judging by the base - 1930's/40s?) Orkney lambing chair, child sized.  The drawer in the bottom is its real downfall.  No quality there.

A lovely display from Ross Plants, as always.  I managed to walk past without buying anything.

Some really lovely kitchenalia.

Painted blanket box.  Modern paint job.

An early rather monotone early sampler.  Sewn on Sundays only.

The original horse is long gone, but hey, it's a horse and cart all the same.

Sampler and a sewing skills framed piece.  How things were back in the day. Such skills and which had been handed down through generations. The crafting of present times shows sewing skills of a different sort, now pin-tucked underwear or nighties are no longer made.

That doll on the left looks a bit leery!

This lady always has a lovely stall, and I've photographed it before.

Finally, talking of leery.  I have a contender for Worst Taxidermy, which may have triumphed over the fox, photographed below about 10 years ago!  This is, apparently, looking at the front teefs, a beaver.  I think they not only ran out of stuffing - it was very FLAT! - but also had to raid the doll's eyes box to finish it off!!  I think he should have the crown!!  

As a P.S. It is obvious that the side-effect of the new meds (mucous on lungs) is actually a chest infection or pollen on chest, not helping my breathing tonight (though I'm ok).  So that is something sorted out and hopefully it will pass without too much intervention.

Trying to make a sensible decision

Isn't this lovely?  Just across the road from the church in Abergavenny.

Much as I want to go to Malvern, I am sat here this morning debating it.  The trouble is I have a skewed mindset, thinking OMG I will die!!  But it was very hot yesterday and I did 5000 steady steps and was ok until I started lugging cans of soup around.  Tam says to go and just take things easy, especially as it will be hot later on but we are usually gone by about 11 a.m.  Pam is driving me and pulling the camping trolley.  I need to stay hydrated and go steady, but it would cheer me up no end (especially if i got that lead horse!!)

The blood thinners are just to stop me having a stroke. If I lie on my left side to sleep, I am woken by my heart racing.  In the night I woke saturated with perspiration - there were wet patches on the sheet.  Never had that so badly even when I had Flu or anything.  I am wondering if it is Hyperthyroidism as well, as I have 3 markers for it.  One of them is I have totally lost my appetite - that is not something I can easily control!  I could walk past the most tempting patisseries at the moment and chocolate - forget it!  I've lost 3 lbs in 3 days.  (Which is needed, but not the ideal way to lose weight).  

A duck display this time at Abergavenny Market.

Gabby has done some research and is coming with me to the GP's on Wednesday, incase I don't take it all in - plus she has questions to ask!  Wednesday can't come soon enough.  I'm not good at resting.  Some more photos of the market.  Next post will be St Mary's Priory Church.

Some lovely old quilts (the maroon/yellow ochre one) and Welsh blankets.

Two nice and reasonably priced pieces of Poole Pottery.

The stalls are a good mixture of things, but this was the only one with older bits and pieces.  Several stalls with fruit and veg, one with records, there was jewellery, clothing, pictures, cushions, baked goods.  Talking of which, I needed a loaf of bread - checked one bakers and a sourdough loaf in there was £5!!!  I got a small granary loaf in Morrisons for £1.10 . . .

Oh and Lizzy I think, wanted the link to the French Brocante Youtube video.  There you go my dear.  Enjoy.  HOW MUCH I want to go now!!!

A Scary Day

 I have just spent the afternoon at the GP's surgery.  I had several times in the past spoken to the Dr about what I thought was a heart arrythmia, but it didn't show up on ECGs.  Anyway the last couple of days I have been woken at around 2.30 a.m. with an extra-fast pulse (worrying, given that mine, resting, is actually abnormally low (40 - 48).  I have been on the sofa all morning, sleeping but being woken again by my racing heart.  I mentioned it to the kids, thinking it was a bug or something I was coming down with.  Tam was worried and told me to go and get it checked out at the surgery.  So I did - have had blood tests done, two ECGs and blood pressure done (that very good - first 120/76, then 107/76).   I saw a new-to-the-practice Dr and he was very thorough, and explained to me I had a hint of the start of atrial fibrillation.  It wasn't presenting all of the time, but the 2nd ECG showed it was there.  I am now on medication to thin my blood. 

Photo from yesterday's walk.

So, I am feeling a bit shook up, needless to say.  My mum died of a stroke, my gran of a sudden heart attack and my dad was on Warfarin but died from a blood clot on the lung all the same . . .  I am feeling a bit less mortal now . . .  The rotary cutter will have to go, that's for sure!  Can't risk another bad cut.

Don't know what to have for tea.  Don't fancy the other half of last night's stir-fry that's for sure.  Fish fingers perhaps.

What really makes me tick

 

A view for Andrea.  This was taken on a walk earlier this year, when I went up through the woods onto the steep hill that is best walked down and not UP!

I got my finger dressed this morning but it has gone two steps forward and one back as there wasn't a piece of gauze directly over the finger/wound and so it got ripped open and several bits of sticky holding it together aren't any more.  Chap put an extra thick wad of dressing on and now if I need to wash up or wash my hair, my index finger will only fit in the thumb on my rubber gloves . . .  Back on Saturday to have it removed, but I said I was going to Malvern Flea on Sunday so it would need a covering still.

I did a bit of shopping, went to the Charity shops and got two lovely t-shirts, one with cats on.  That's from M&S and has a Day Dreams Duvet Days tag on it so is meant to be slept in but I shall use it as a t-shirt.  The other one is another coral t-shirt from Primark.  I donated my Sanderson curtains and 3 books - was reading a Susan Hill but it was upsetting to read (little boy kidnapped).  Not relaxing bedtime reading.  That and another of hers went.

I topped up with fuel - should have done it last night as Tesco haven't waited around and it's gone up to £141.9 per litre already.  I'm glad I ordered the heating oil when I did.

From that same walk. Sorry, phone photo again.

This afternoon I had a yen to watch a few Drew Pritchard programmes - I think Keith and I saw just about every one.  We weren't keen when he bought rusty old rubbish.  Our favourites were when he and Tee went  abroad to markets and antique shops.  Finding antiques and collectables were what made Keith and I tick and we were the perfect partners when we did this together.  Sometimes it was almost like greyhounds being let off a leash and we would be amongst other dealers, traders and collectors who set off at a run to the first stalls.  DP had it absolutely right when he said some of his best buys (things often he would never part with) were bought at first glance/instant decision.  It was the same for us - literally just gut feeling decisions.  I had one of those when I passed over the lead horse last month (good gut feeling - bad price!) and am praying it is back still unsold this time, and I will haggle - which is what I should have done last time.  I knew it would go no further than me though!

Of course, watching those programmes  brought back memories and tears hit me again.  I love going to the Fairs, but it's not the same without Keith.  There are hundreds of people there, friends too buying and selling, but it can still feel so lonely.  I miss having Keith happily working in his workshop on his latest restoration project, his excitement at getting a good buy - especially if it turned out to be a VERY good buy, and some of them did.  We lived off our wits, and our knowledge, and I'm not intending to give that up yet. I am just having to re-invent myself to this new existence on my own.

I've got my friend Pam for company on Sunday, and she's driving me, bless her.  I'll treat her to one of the lovely plants which are always on offer there.  

A restful but productive day, and a wildflower walk

 

Here is Nurse Pippi, doing a headstand on the big container of dried fruits and bags of seeds.  She kept me company this morning whilst I sat in the living room and watched the first two programmes of Shardlake on ITVX.  I found I was able to hand stitch perfectly well and I have just finished watching Shardlake, and putting the final hand quilting stitch to the last border . . .  Assembly next.

Bright sunshine on the foxgloves during my walk this afternoon.  I braved the wind which was blowing pollen around, but at least stayed cool on my walk.  I did two miles, up the side of the valley to the phone box and back.

The view a 100 yards further on.

Rosebay Willowherb is just coming into full bloom.  All parts of this are edible and the flowers make a wonderful jam apparently.  The highlighted name gives a link to an excellent foraging page.

As is Meadowsweet.  Whenever I see this I think of the Beaker People and Mead and the Saxons and Vikings and my darling Keith who loved it too - I think he loved the link to Viking times.

A closer encounter with a foxglove.  You probably know this provides heart medicine through its Digitalin content.

These are Common Cow-wheat.  They used to grow profusely on the riverbank by the Cothi back in Carms.  This is used for coughs, colds and digestive problems.

Square-stemmed St. John's Wort.  The flowers yield a deep red oil (from the hypericin in them). This is one of the active ingredients used medicinally, along with hyperflorin.  It has been used to treat nerve disorders for over 2000 years.  It is believed its name comes from the Knights of St John of Jerusalem who used it to treat battlefield wounds during the Crusades.  More Info HERE.  

My new bedroom curtains, blackout ones, and they make a big difference to the light in the room early morning.  I love the pattern too : Emelie, with its flowers and birds.  I bought them on Ebay, still in original wrapping - for under £40 (plus postage) - originally £55 when on Dunelms' shelves.  They go well with the Cow Parsley wallpaper too. They arrived on Saturday, so I ironed and hung them straight away.

I have managed quite well with Poorly Finger.  I needed to check if I could drive or whether I would need a lift to A&E again tomorrow (check up), but I was OK as long as I stuck my finger out.  I just drove up to the Co-op and back.  I managed to get my bra on and off ok too, and ditto clothes on and off.  Washing up needed care but I put the left hand washing up glove loosely on to keep finger dry and just rinsed off plates and cutlery under warm water, mainly using my right hand.  Now I have to negotiate hair washing - left hand in glove and right hand washing. This is to remove the pollen from my hair before bedtime.

A trip to A&E . . .

 

Well, that is sewing knocked on the head for a few days.  All my own silly fault.  Whilst trimming the ears of the edge off a block, a swift swipe and a lack of attention embedded the rotary cutter deep into my finger and it did not want to stop bleeding. . .  20 mins of pressure and arm in the air, and I had to call a neighbour to take me to A&E in Llandod.  Not a place they can stitch as it won't hold together, so taped with tiny strips and I go back on Tuesday,  I may need to choose a different victim to drive me if I'm not up to it.  Meanwhile under strict instructions not to do anything - bar some one fingered typing . . .  Tea is fishfingers and oven chips.

As an afterthought - how the HELL am I going to get my bra on in the morning?